Welcome to our blog for Purple Heart Academy - our family's homeschooling blog. You may know us from THL or just from "being around"! Here is where we are telling our tales of triumph and struggle and sharing our journey with all of you!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

My Homeschooling Makes You Uncomfortable...Interesting...

So here's a new take on the whole "non-homeschooling parents vs. homeschooling parents" debate.

Recently DS has started making some friends in town and we've started to broaden our horizons a bit. It's been fun - we've met some GREAT people. Most of them are public schooled but that doesn't really matter to our family.

I got an interesting message yesterday I felt I needed to share with you. For the sake of this conversation making sense, we're going to call her son Bobby. Here is the message:

"Heather, I wanted to contact you and ask you a bit of a favor. Ever since we met you, Bobby has really liked spending time with your son. He's so different and kind compared to the other children he knows. He really values your son as a friend. But I must ask that you ask your son to not talk about homeschooling in front of him anymore. All I hear is 'Why can't I be homeschooled like trainboy?'. It's very upsetting to my husband and I. We're sure you understand. Thank you."

WHAT!?!?!?!?!?

First off, I've witnessed every conversation these two children have had together. The only thing this kid knows about homeschooling is that DS stays home instead of going to public or private school, DS still has to do schoolwork, DS's favorite subject is science, and DS misses having recess.

This is not an exhausting list to overcome.

Unless something isn't going right for Bobby.

Is Bobby being teased? Is he being bullied? Is something not going right? Is he behind/ahead in his work? Struggling?

Is Bobby's Mommy not helping him at home and encouraging him? Or is Bobby having issues with a teacher? Is Bobby having issues with a classmaate or two?

Because "I'm homeschooled." "Yes, I still have to do schoolwork." "My favorite subject is Science, Mom lets me do it every day!" and "I miss recess - you're lucky to have recess." is NOT enough for me to go on that Bobby wants to be homeschooled.

Bobby's Mom is uncomfortable with homeschooling because it's too close to her front door. I can already hear the conversation now "Well, if Trainboy's Mom can do it, why can't you?"

And she has to FIND an answer - one believable enough for Bobby to accept.

And I'm sure that's not a very happy place for her to be...but that has NOTHING to do with MY homeschooling.

I wonder how many other parents resort to whatever techniques they can find as homeschooling starts to knock on their door to convince their children that we're wrong and they're right. I wonder if the assumptions and LIES that surround homeschooling are more because we make people uncomfortable than what they TRULY believe in their hearts.